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I don't care for the chemistry focus as mentioned before.... Filling balloons and setting them up would get old after about 20 minutes.... but as for science relating to the range..... It's a good opportunity to teach a basic physics concept of ballistic trajectory. I could see a teaching station say before they go through safety orientation, that teaches them about trajectory. Some way to demonstrate that an object thrown horizontally will hit the ground at the same time as something that is dropped. Maybe a rig hanging from a tree that drops two balls simultaneously, one drops straight and the other falls on a ramp to give it horizontal direction????

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I did point that out, that we'd be forever 'restocking' on cups, balloons and water (not 100% sure on the amount of scouts participating but regardless we'd be doing it a LOT.) Love your idea about trajectory, I will pass that along. I have all ideas she will say no to that as well (it seems to me she's mainly going for eye catching 'setups', over anything else.) But regardless we can show that in our den to our boys if nothing else.

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Meh, its getting old. I do enough jumping through hoops for work on here, lol. Although I'm sure this is just a small hoop compared to what I'll see later on so I'm not complaining. I'm just gonna plan to do what I can - something very basic beforehand and then a normal firing range. They have tons of other things planned out for other areas that have science/engineering/technology/math written all over them. Apparently I was given this as no one else could come up with anything. I wonder why!

I am a bit confused, you said this was for Day Camp, yet from your comments, it sounds like this is a camp for JUST your Pack.

If this is a District Summer Day Camp, then there will be boys from all over attending. There will most likely be many who have never done BB's, or archery (not just the newbies from your Pack and those who missed a campout last year). Even if every single Scout attending the Day Camp has already earned their BB/Archery belt loops, a refresher on the rules before shooting is always a must. Kids forget.

Also, if this is a District Day Camp, when you say that the Cubmaster of your Pack is "over camp", do you mean that she is the Day Camp Camp Director, or Program Director? If so, then she should have taken BSA Camp School training. She should know that the firing range is just that, a firing range, and only that.

If your Camp Director (CD) wants a nifty way to tie the shooting range to the Day Camp theme I suggest Sir Isaac Newton.

First, see if you can get enough lab coats donated for 4 groups of campers. With a typical Day Camp group being 6-8, you would need about 40 lab coats (this includes extras for adult staff). Contact area hospitals, and medical supply stores Make sure you have eye protection for everyone also.

Talk to the Program Director about putting a camp station right by the firing range(s). The camp rotation would be to go to the science station first. The boys would receive lab coats, eyewear, and learn about Newton's 3 Laws of Motion. After that they would move to the range (with coats/eyewear), and have fun putting the Laws into practice. After their turn at the range(s) was done they would turn their coats, and eyewear over to the next group at the science station.

If you will be running both a BB, and archery range at the same time, you will need enough coats/eyewear for 3 groups at a time (science station-BB-archery).

The science station can be named Newton's Laws. The firing range(s) Newton's OutLaws.

I am a bit confused, you said this was for Day Camp, yet from your comments, it sounds like this is a camp for JUST your Pack. If this is a District Summer Day Camp, then there will be boys from all over attending. There will most likely be many who have never done BB's, or archery (not just the newbies from your Pack and those who missed a campout last year). Even if every single Scout attending the Day Camp has already earned their BB/Archery belt loops, a refresher on the rules before shooting is always a must. Kids forget. Also, if this is a District Day Camp, when you say that the Cubmaster of your Pack is "over camp", do you mean that she is the Day Camp Camp Director, or Program Director? If so, then she should have taken BSA Camp School training. She should know that the firing range is just that, a firing range, and only that. If your Camp Director (CD) wants a nifty way to tie the shooting range to the Day Camp theme I suggest Sir Isaac Newton. First, see if you can get enough lab coats donated for 4 groups of campers. With a typical Day Camp group being 6-8, you would need about 40 lab coats (this includes extras for adult staff). Contact area hospitals, and medical supply stores Make sure you have eye protection for everyone also. Talk to the Program Director about putting a camp station right by the firing range(s). The camp rotation would be to go to the science station first. The boys would receive lab coats, eyewear, and learn about Newton's 3 Laws of Motion. After that they would move to the range (with coats/eyewear), and have fun putting the Laws into practice. After their turn at the range(s) was done they would turn their coats, and eyewear over to the next group at the science station. If you will be running both a BB, and archery range at the same time, you will need enough coats/eyewear for 3 groups at a time (science station-BB-archery). The science station can be named Newton's Laws. The firing range(s) Newton's OutLaws.

Bare with me, first time with all this this year and I tend to not clarify when writing in a rush. It's not just our pack, it is for our district. I have never met another person from the other 2-3 packs in our district (none showed up to our Cuboree last November) but they are invited to attend as well by our CM. As far as I know, they do not do much with us in general (I've heard of the other groups mentioned only a handful of times since I've been around.) That is why I constantly refer to just our pack - its all I know. I asked about inviting the other pack to join us at last festival here in town (to promote scouting at our booth) and was never given any contact info. I've looked around online (including our council's website) but all the numbers I found (and left messages at) were not responded to.

I know she has the title of something-director over it (they discussed that at the previous roundtable) but I could not tell you which one. I know she's taken many training courses over the past few years (some in this county, some in this state and some out of state.) Again, I don't know all the specifics. I've had so much thrown at me the past few months, its hard enough keeping up with everything I need to do. She's been a CM for 8 years I believe. This is her last event and then a new CM takes over our pack so I guess all those details didn't need to be shared with us newbies.

I was told there would be lab coats for the kids to wear, so that's a plus. Probably not 40 but I appreciate your suggestions, I will send these over to her and see if I can get permission to reach out for more. I love your idea about the station and firing range, thank you for contributing that! We will be running both (we have 3 people now officially trained to help out in this area.)

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I ran day camp for years, have taught day camp administration at National Camping School and been responsible for day camp appraisals (inspections) for the council. A great theme can add a lot to the program. I've visited many day camps and have seen how a cool theme can add a unique element to the program which the Scouts wouldn't have otherwise. But I've always thought the adults put a lot more emphasis into the themes than the kids do. If the kids are having fun with mad science at one station then learning to throw a lasso at a Wild West station 30 minutes later, they don't care.

I wouldn't get too bent about folding the theme into every single station. If you find something which works, fine. If not, the kids will have fun simply shooting bbs and archery.

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Faith: I think you were going a little above and beyond. You were trying incorporate something scientific into the activity, when I think all you really need is to decorate it toward the theme. So I think changing up the targets is a great idea. Just have them shoot at something shaped like something that evokes science, like a diagram of an atom, or the solar system. Tell them their bb guns are are actually death rays, and they are going to destroy the planet of Alderon. Or they have to split the atom the way William Tell split the apple.

Thanks you two Not sure where the comments went (the forum changed on me!) but yesterday I pretty much decided to keep it to simple targets and let all the other areas 'go all out.' Easy setup for us, a happy CM (I will make sure to make the displays colorful while being sciency in 'form') and happy scouts who get to shoot

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Gonna try my hand at posting a photo. Got these targets done, finally. I suggested SO many things and SO many ideas got shot down. So we went very, very simple. Ignore the two scientists in the bb gun set, those will be decorations, the rest (8) will be bb gun targets. As for the boxes, We're gonna set it up as a pyramid, a big, medium, small stacked (5 of those total.)

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If you are looking for a Sci-fi type theme, you could always look up the 501st Legion. They are a world wide screen accurate Star Wars costume group. They love doing stuff like that for kids.

Nice! My son would have been our biggest fan (huge Star Wars fan) but I'm not even sure if they'd have let us use something character related. So many rules I ran into, it was very disheartening after setting out so many times what could be done, lol.

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If you are looking for a Sci-fi type theme, you could always look up the 501st Legion. They are a world wide screen accurate Star Wars costume group. They love doing stuff like that for kids.

Nice! My son would have been our biggest fan (huge Star Wars fan) but I'm not even sure if they'd have let us use something character related. So many rules I ran into, it was very disheartening after setting out so many times what could be done, lol.